The Art of Fugue

[prémont]

@Mandryka. From the booklet:

David Lively en propose une lecture qui sépare toutes les fugues en deux
groupes: celles où la forme dicte le fond, le contenue expressif se pliant
aux exigeances de la construction et celles, plus libres, qui ont en commun
le souci prépondérant de l'expressivité. Ainsi, les deux fugues miroirs sont
disposées de facon à server de cadre symmétrique: en ouverture, le rectus
de la première fugue-miroir suivi de l'iinversus de la deuxième et, pour
clore, le rectus de la deuxiéme fugue-miroir précédé par l'inversus de la
première. Se cadre formel enserre les quatre canons stricts présentés
en série croissante de complexité, terminant par une cadence improvisée.

[Mandryka]

@Mandryka. From the booklet:

David Lively en propose une lecture qui sépare toutes les fugues en deux
groupes: celles où la forme dicte le fond, le contenue expressif se pliant
aux exigeances de la construction et celles, plus libres, qui ont en commun
le souci prépondérant de l'expressivité. Ainsi, les deux fugues miroirs sont
disposées de facon à server de cadre symmétrique: en ouverture, le rectus
de la première fugue-miroir suivi de l'iinversus de la deuxième et, pour
clore, le rectus de la deuxiéme fugue-miroir précédé par l'inversus de la
première. Se cadre formel enserre les quatre canons stricts présentés
en série croissante de complexité, terminant par une cadence improvisée.

Gosh, I can't remember seeing that before. He's got ideas!

I like the recording actually, I listened to about half of it this afternoon.

[prémont]

Gosh, I can't remember seeing that before. He's got ideas!

I like the recording actually, I listened to about half of it this afternoon.

I like his recording too, but his words are senseless. In all the cpti the form is decisive for the content.

[prémont]

[AoF, Quartetto di Cremona]
I don't think you'll regret it. There's a moment quite early on where they take a fugue as a cello and violin duo - it was the moment when my ears first pricked up in the concert, and the same experience just now on the recording.

That's one of the canons.

BTW I didn't regret the purchase, because it's always interesting to hear radically new approaches to this work. However it's certainly not my cup of tea.

The group's interpretive style is IMO very far from Bach. The tone production and bowing techniques are decidedly modern, leading to a piercing tone in the higher registers—a trait often found in contemporary string quartets that I find difficult to enjoy. The performance is also marked by rather much vibrato and an excess of heavily accented notes, which conveys a bouncy and irregular quality to the music. Furthermore, the tempi are frequently taken very fast, creating discomfort for both the musicians and the audience, and resulting in an overall hectic quality.

If it is to be performed with solo strings, I much prefer a viola da gamba quartet, whose sound I think is much better balanced than a modern string quartet. Alternatively, there are also some excellent recordings with a mixed ensemble of period instruments (Alessandrini and Savall e.g.).